Saint Joseph Catholic Church

In a wide-ranging interview, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York from 2009 until his recent retirement, discussed the Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and his own new appointment as co-chief chaplain of the New York Police Department.

Cardinal Dolan also offered strong praise for his successor (Archbishop Ronald Hicks) and said that it is time to “move on” from the emphasis on synodality.

The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration described a $38.3-billion expansion of the federal immigration detention system as a “moral inflection point for our country.”

“The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American,” Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, said in his February 20 statement. “Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country.”

“We implore the Administration and Congress to lead with right reason, abandon this misuse of taxpayer funds, and to instead pursue a more just approach to immigration enforcement that truly respects human dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty,” he added.

In releasing Bishop Cahill’s statement, the USCCB said that the expense “amounts to nearly fifty times the annual budget for the entire immigration court system and almost five times the funding provided this year to operate the federal prison system.”

“The plan partly entails opening eight ‘mega‑centers,’ each of which would be capable of detaining 7,000 to 10,000 people,” the USCCB added. “Aside from the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans in the 1940s, such facilities have no precedent in American history.”

Archbishop José Adolfo Larregain, OFM, of Corrientes, Argentina, declared a marriage contracted last month between two transgender persons ipso facto null.

The putative marriage was contracted between a man who presents himself as a woman and a woman who presents herself as a man. At the time, the parish priest said that he had consulted with Archbishop Larregain, and that the prelate had found no canonical impediment to wedding because they were of opposite sexes.

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Laudato Si’ Village, dedicated last September at Castel Gandolfo, recalled the anniversary of the American bombing of the Holy See’s property in 1944, during World War II.

The hundreds of refugees who were killed “were people looking only for a safe place,” said Father Manuel Dorantes, administrative director of the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center. “They were seeking protection.”

Pope Venerable Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, “opened doors,” Father Dorantes added. “He made space available. He saved lives.”

New paintings of the Stations of the Cross were inaugurated in St. Peter’s Basilica last evening as the basilica celebrates its 400th anniversary year.

The paintings, the work of Swiss artist Manuel Andreas Dürr, will be on display during the remainder of Lent. According to the basilica, Dürr was one of a thousand artists from 80 nations who submitted entries to the artistic competition for the painting of the Stations.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, sent a message in the Holy Father’s name to Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles on the occasion of the archdiocesan Religious Education Congress.

Cardinal Parolin wrote:

His Holiness would likewise encourage the young people present to open their hearts to the love of God. Love not only led Jesus to give himself for us on the Cross, but also to remain with us in the Blessed Sacrament. In this regard, he prays that their experience at the Conference will help them to discover Jesus’ Eucharistic presence as an unfailing source of comfort and strength in all of life’s circumstances.

Addressing catechists, Cardinal Parolin also said that “by deepening your relationship with Jesus, who is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6), and continuing to be faithful and joyful disciples in your daily lives, your authenticity as educators and catechetical leaders will enable you to transmit the Gospel in such a way that it leads to a true encounter with the Lord and contributes to building up a lasting and life-giving culture.”

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